Healing
by dragonpearlz
Summary: Takes place after 'Elevation'. Adi Mundi is away on a solo mission and gets sick. Lisa is on Coruscant and helps, sort of.


This story takes place after 'Elevation', which I believe is rather unfinished. But, this was a different story for a different time. Lisa and her former Master, Ki Adi Mundi, are still working on 'dating'. Ki is away on a solo mission and Lisa is doing what she does best – healing.

Lisa gasped as the fire seized her lungs again. It had been three weeks since her former Master had left for his solo mission, and only a week after his departure had she felt it. The burning across the bond. He was sick enough to cause a fever – and that was bad.

His Mon Calamarian species was cold blooded, which meant a substantial raise in body temperture, without the proper care, could kill him. Unlike her, he was a General – which meant he was asked to carry on the most grueling of tasks, in the most unsatisfactory of circumstances – including poor medical care. So, whenever he went on a solo mission, she made sure they kept a bit of their link open for her to pull any symptoms off of him.

This time… it was bad.

Master Adi Mundi woke up with a groan. His body ached, as if he was coming down with something. 'Though it could be age,' he reminded himself as he led himself through his morning meditations. 'What a fool I am, to think a young lady such as Lisa could love me,' he thought. He suppressed a cough. 'Could be an allergy,' he thought. 'Who am I kidding? And the timing…' He sighed. 'I wish Lisa was here.'

Lisa opened her eyes to the sunlight. 'Force! I slept late!' she thought as she jumped out of bed. She froze immediately. The bond… Ki was trying to tell her something. Then she felt it, the hot prickling under her skin. He was sick – and in the field. She knew what she had to do.

"Heh…heh…kectchoo!" Master Adi Mundi sneezed into a cupped hand. His fever had abated after his morning meditations, as had the tickle in his throat. But, now there was sneezing. 'Perhaps,' he thought, 'this was an allergy.' "Kectchoo!"

"Bless you, General," the clone next to him said.

He nodded his thanks. "We'll push hard and to the right. They'll be expecting a flanking manuveur, so their forces should be split. Hopefully…" He sniffed. "Hopefully, we'll be able to break their line before their reinforcements get there."

"Yes, General," the clone said and moved off to alert the troops.

Master Adi Mundi blinked back tears. 'Definitely an allergy,' he thought, as he strengthed his healing shields to try to keep a headache from forming.

Lisa's skin burned so badly she was sure she had sunburned somewhere. The prickling hot and cold would have alarmed her, but it wasn't her illness. In fact, they weren't even her symptoms. Just some energy that she needed to burn off for her Master… former Master she mentally corrected herself. She couldn't get over the fact that a great Jedi Master like Ki Adi Mundi wanted to potentially pair bond with her. And she couldn't believe that she was falling for him. After all these years, how could she not? But, realistically, she never looked at him that way until after he told her of his feelings for her. It was an oddness that she didn't have time to ponder.

She smiled as the initiates came in for their Healer's Studies class. She loved working with the younger kids. The ones that only worked through the Force and instinct because they had no other experiences to cloud their judgement. Today would be an interesting day for them.

She cleared her throat, and scratched at her ear. Her Master must have been developing a cough as well. 'Interesting,' she thought. He only rarely took ill and she wondered where he could have picked up such an illness.

She decided this would be the perfect day to figure out which of her students had the same healer strength she did as a young child. She remembered annoying her teachers with questions about how they were feeling, when she knew that they were feeling poorly, but had no concept of how to deal with it.

It was how she met her first master, Master Losha. He was sick and resting in the Garden of many fountains. She was on her way to the library and heard him sneeze. She was about six at the time, and had gone in looking for whoever had sneezed. She found him miserably blowing his nose and had offered him a menthol drop. There had been a few colds in the creche and all the initiates had been given several, just incase. She had already given away all of her others. He graciously accepted the medicine and had taken an interest in her after that.

She cleared her throat again. "Good Morning class."

"Good morning Knight Lisa," the class said back. Some of them giggled a little. It was highly unusal for a Knight to not want their last name to be referenced. And, some of them found it silly, as they couldn't wait to command enough respect to be known by their last name. But, it was not yet their time.

She scratched her ear again. "Today, we will work on perception. I want you to say to me whatever comes to your mind first, based on what you see when you look at me."

One initiate raised his hand. "Yes, Chickado?" she asked a small brown Lepi.

"You're ears," she replied, stroking her own long ears, "Is something the matter with them? You've been playing with them. A habit you don't normally have, unlike me." She suddenly stopped stroking her ears and put her hands in her lap.

"In fact there is not something wrong with my ears, but a very good attempt. What else could cause me to play with my e-ears?" She stuttered as she felt her temperature go up another degree suddenly. Another gasp as she felt Adi Mundi over exert himself. She blinked rapidly to keep her breath, but found her self quite unable to. It felt as if every last inch of sustainable air was being pressed out of her system, and she felt herself start to sweat as she fell to the ground.

She awoke to voices.

"There's nothing physically wrong with her."

"You don't just pass out for no good reason." Mace Windu's voice argued.

"Well apparently she did. I've run every test I could think of and a few that the systems had in their back up. I can't figure it out."

"Master Adi Mundi should be called." It was Qui-Gon.

"No, he's in the middle of a battle. What are we going to tell him? You're ex-Padawan is sick, but we don't know with what? He'll just worry." It was Obi-Wan.

"'m fine," she croaked.

All three men and one female, who she supposed was the healer laughed. "I'm sorry, Lisa. We may not know what happened, but you are not all right."

"Didn't say I was all right," Lisa croaked, forcing herself to sit up. "Said I'm fine."

"Explain you must," Yoda said. "Or be content none of us will. And here you will stay, until come home Adi Mundi does."

Lisa was certain that her lungs were on fire. "'m healing him. Ki, he's sick. Out in the field. If what I'm feeling is right, he's got some nasty local flu like illness. But, the fever is high. So high it would kill him. I've been able to pull some of the energy that would work into his symptoms off of him – you know…fever, headache, cough… but I'm afraid he's still sneezing something fierce…"

"Your bod is open… while he's in the field?" Qui-Gon asked. That was something he and Obi-Wan forbade. It wasn't fair for the other one to be incapacitated. They were trying to avoid…well… this.

"Only a bit. So that we can tell when the other one needs us."

"But, he can't tell that you are suffering?" Mace asked.

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, immediately regretting it, as her lungs burned and her temperature went up another degree. "Course not," she whispered. "What kind of a crummy healer would I be if I let him feel this? Not only would I be a poor healer, but I'd be a poor girlfriend."

"I've heard of it," the healer said, scratching her head. "But, I've never met someone who can syphen symptoms off of another like this. Normally it wouldn't even be a bad thing, but her lungs are starting to melt, and her organs are starting to cook. The fever of whatever this is would certainly kill Master Adi Munki. But, in attempting to save him, it is killing her."

"He must be brought home," Qui-Gon said. His heart pulled as he thought of the mental anguish he would be in if he didn't know that Obi-Wan was suffering and then came home to find that his ignorance caused irreversible damage or worse.

"No!" Yoda hit his stick on the ground. "A shame this is, yes. But, an accomplished healer Lisa is. If this she does, by her own will she does it. He will not be brought home."

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan exchanged knowing glances, and Obi-Wan left the room immediately.

"Heh-Kectchoo!" Master Adi Mundi sneezed. They had won the battle, but were a long way from winning the war. He tried to syphen his allergy symptoms to Lisa, but would only get a hushed apology about not being able to take them.

His heart fell. She couldn't give of herself even a little – even knowing the conditions that he was in. Maybe she truly didn't love him after all.

"Hep," he paused, mid sneeze as a clone walked in with a holoprojector. "It's a message from Coruscant. Your Padawan is in danger," the clone said, leaving the holo with Master Adi Mundi and leaving his presence immediately.

Master Adi Mundi turned on the holo and immediately a hologram of a cloaked Obi-Wan came up. "Master Adi Mundi, what I have to tell you is of gravest importance. Your Padawan, Lisa, has taken ill. She has syphened off too much of your illness and it is killing her. Because she is not who is ill we cannot treat her. However, if you were to come home we could work on finding a cure and make her well again."

He paused and turned to the side. "Yes, Master," he whispered. "I know your mission is of the upmost importance, and I do not wish to make you feel as though I do not respect your position, General. But, were I in your shoes, I would want to know what was really going on at home. Safe travels and may the Force be with you." With that the holo bleeped out.

'Yes, Master.' The secret code of those who know to go against the will of the council. The Council – or probably more specifically, Yoda – did not want him to know. 'No,' he thought. 'It's more likely that he didn't want me to give up the mission.' "Ketchoo!" Adi Mundi sneezed freely. He had forgotten completely about the sneeze, and he wondered if the delay was a kindness afforded to him by Lisa.

He felt guilty. He had nearly been thinking to accuse her of not caring about him – or worse: not loving him. And, meanwhile, she had reduced his illness to naught but allergies and was slowly dying twelve parsecs away.

How could she think this is what he would want? He envisioned coming home, feeling miserable as the virus set in – if he was likely to get sick it was typically in space. It was so cold there. He would have been sad when she didn't meet him at the docking ring, but figured she was either teaching or mentoring or working in the Healing Dome or studying for her own pleasure and lost track of time. To come home to empty quarters would have been breath taking, but the realization that she had died so that he could complete a mission for a pointless war that he didn't even share the views of… he would have died right there.

He shut down the link for five standard minutes. Almost immediately, he felt the symptoms of the virus and his body temperature skyrocket. He passed out and the link opened back up. Pulling his temperature back down. But, he had felt it. And that was enough for him to fake it.

"Master Yoda?" Mace said. "We've just received a transmission from Master Adi Mundi's transport. He's taken ill and is on his way back."

Yoda sighed and looked at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. "Home I did not wish him to come."

"It's the will of the Force," Obi-Wan said, non-chalantly.

Qui-Gon was so proud.

"You're here!" the Healer said, as soon as she saw Master Adi Mundi. "Thank the Force!" She lead him into another room.

"Can I see Lisa?" he asked.

"Bacta," she said, pointing to the tank. "I'll run tests while you're in there. The faster we cure you, the faster Lisa will … wait… do you know…"

"Yes," Master Adi Mundi said stripping off his robes. "I just wish to see her recover," he said stepping into the bacta tank.

"As do we," the healer said, closing the lid.

When Master Adi Mundi awoke he felt dreadful. His throat hurt and his head felt like it was filled with cement. "Kesschtoo!" he sneezed, feeling the congestion in his head shift.

"Hey," a sweet voice said. He felt a soft hand on his cheek.

"Lisa?" he croaked. He felt dreadful.

"Hm mmm," she said. He felt the bed shift as she sat on it.

"Why Lisa. Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

She coughed. "You didn't," she answered honestly.

"And I wouldn't notice when I came back and you were dead?"

"I'd come back for you," she said softly.

He smiled. "Well that's just creepy." He paused. "I do appreciate the sentiment though. But, I can handle my own illness."

"This you couldn't. The fever nearly cooked my organs. It would have _killed_ you. I couldn't let that happen."

He opened his eyes and reached up to stroke her cheek. "As I said, I appreciate you."

She smiled. It wasn't what he had said. It was better. And, now that the bacta and the antivirals had reduced the virius to mere fatigue, she knew she could care for him and that they would be fine.


End file.
